Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / May 1, 1995, edition 1 / Page 9
Part of Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
May 1995 Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina Pledge Continued from page 1 not free. The audience just doesn’t pay for it directly. They pay for it when they purchase a Milky Way or Kraft cheese, which include the cost of advertising. In public radio, it’s hard for people to understand they need to send the money directly to us.” Second, public stations must, master the trick of raising as much money as possible on the air without losing fans to boredom or frustra tion. “No one likes fundraisers,” says Deborah Proctor, station manager of WCPE radio in Wake Forest. “We don’t hke them either. People want classical music. They don’t want us to talk.” But with major government bud get cuts looming, mastering the art of on-air fundraising has become para mount. PUBLIC FUNDING BLUES Both federal and state lawmakers are considering proposals that would slash pubUc financial support to pub lic radio and TV. In Washington, the House of Representatives passed a bill that proposes cutting funds to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by 15 percent in 1996 and 30 percent in 1997. Congress created the non profit in 1967 to fund public radio and TV. Some representatives say they intend to increase the cuts until the funding is eliminated. When the Journal went to press, the U.S. Senate had not voted on the bill. In 1991, North Carolina lawmak ers cut all state funding to public radio stations tied to state universi ties. Stations such as WUNC, affiliat ed with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and WFSS, affiliated with Fayetteville State University, saw their budgets cut. Now, a similar bill being reviewed in the state House proposes ending state support of pubUc radio stations tied to community colleges. The cuts would affect two stations; WNCW, which broadcasts from Isothermal Community College in Spindale, and WTEB, which broadcasts from Craven Community College in New Bern. Each now receives $142,000 from the state. Burr Beard, founding general manager at WNCW, says a combina tion of federal and state cuts could devastate his small station which broadcasts world music, folk classics and National Public Radio news to listeners in Western North Carolina. “We’d lose 45 percent of our [$600,000 annual ] budget,” he says. “We’d be in crisis mode.” To compensate, the station dou bled the number of new members - or financial contributors to the station - it hoped to attract in its spring fundraiser. A NECESSARY EVIL Many public broadcast stations are increasing their fundraising goals this year to prepare for poten tial government funding cuts. But they say the audience must he approached intelligently and deU- cately. “You can’t get on the air and drone on and be repetitious,” says Linda Carr, a St. Louis-based fundraising consultant who has worked with public radio stations tor more than 20 years. “The audience for public stations is very intelligent. They want to know why we’re fundraising not just what it is”. Over the years, public stations have learned to limit and make pro ductive use of the time spent on a single pitch. Radio station managers say pitching over ei^t minutes at a time is a death wish. “It used to be 10 minutes and longer,” says Loretta Rucker, a Brooklyn-based fundraising consul tant. “But now we know differently, that it needs to he less and that it’s good to vary the amount of time. Breaks can go from 5 to 10 minutes.” At WUNC-TV, Director of Development Camille Patterson says 15 minutes is the boredom threshold for TV. “The average message is about nine to 10 minutes, but never more than 15,” she says. Beyond this shared philosophy on time, public stations diverge on how best to make the on-air pitch. In North Carolina, styles range from dramatic to low-key, from lavish to no-nonsense. FROM WOODWORK TO EMILY BRONTE WUNC-TV dominates its radio peers in size and scope. With a $15.6 million budget and state-wide net work of 10 transmitters, it can be turned on in 2.3 million homes. According to the Nielson ratings, about 850,000 people watch it each week. Only Robeson County residents can’t tune in, hut the station hopes to remedy that with a new transmitter scheduled tor that region soon. WUNC-TV recently wrapped up its on-air fundraiser, “Festival 95”, which stretched over 25 days in March. In comparison, puhUc radio sta tions average seven days for their on-air fundraisers. According to Patterson of WUNC- TV, the TV station reUes on a “down- home”, folksy approach. “We don’t use TelePrompted scripts,” she says. “We just try to reinforce the merits of the pro gram...We are much more down home, if you will, than other stations. We are much more neighborly about it.” Local personalities such as Triangle-area professors and busi ness leaders as well as program celebrities like Rick Steves, who has a European travel show, pitch for the station during Festival, always keep ing the talk friendly and familiar. The style appears to be paying off. This year, WUNC-TV raised more than $2 million and ranked second in the U.S. among PubUc Broadcasting Service stations for total dollars raised during Festival. AU PBS sta tions hold fundraising “Festivals” simultaneously. This year, only a New York City station raised more, bringing in $2.5 miUion. “It’s a pretty big deal in the pubUc television world,” Patterson says. “I can’t remember seeing any station other than New York that went over $2 milUon.” In Wilmington, public radio sta tion WHQR relies on drama and entertainment to pull off its on-air pledge drives. “The trick with fundraisers is to try to maintain a Uttle dignity for us and the Usteners,” says station man ager Michael Titterton, who helped found the community-based station 11 years ago. “What we. try to do is recognize that on-air pledge drives are not an interruption of begging and pleading but one enormous cele bratory program.” The station designs radio dramas with fundraising themes. In the past, it’s presented “Gone with the Pledge,” “Pledgablanca” and a popu lar “Wutherlng Heists,” featuring a pledge-minded Heathcliff and Catherine. “We all know what’s going on here,” Titterton says. “Begging and pleading and cajoling don’t work. It’s not appealing.” \TOQR also steers clear of fancy premiums - gifts given by stations in exchange for donations. Titterton says keeping track of special gifts became too compUcated, and the tac tic heUttled the message that Usten ers should contribute to the station for its own sake rather than for a free concert ticket or restaurant meal. In the mountains, on the other hand, WNCW capitalizes on crafts by local artists and artisans to tempt donors. “We sound Uke the folk arts cen ter here,” Beard says. “With one-of- a-kind handmade items [for premi ums], we can raise the level of the pledge.” Last year, donors who con tributed $50 or more got a wooden bowl by craftsman Stoney Lamar. Donors who topped $500 received a home-visit and free consultation by Ken Gaylord, a local architect spe cializing in energy conservation. In Wake Forest, WCPE chose sUence - its own - as an incentive to donors. For a month before its on-air pledge drive began, the radio station told listeners that every $1,000 donated early would lop off one hour from the nine-day pledge drive. “Internally, we’re calling it the ‘Shut Us Up campaign,”’ says Proctor, general manager of the sta tion whose motto is “great classical music without a lot of talk.” WCPE receives no government funding for its $1.2 miUion annual budget. Since it went on the air in 1978, it’s reUed only on private dona tions. On the other hand, in FayetteviUe, WFSS gave Usteners an earful about potential government funding cuts. The station’s budget was cut in half in 1991, when the state withdrew funding. Currently, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) provides more than 42 percent of the station’s $400,000 budget. “If CPB goes, we’d he crippled,” says Frank Sundram, general man ager. To compensate, the station raised its spring fundraising goal from $25,000 to $40,000. In addition, the station faces an uphill battle with membership loss due to a high turnover in FayetteviUe’s miUtary community. “Every four to five years, we have a 100 percent turnover in our mem bership base. It sets us back consid erably,” Sundram says. “We can’t use the algorithm that other radio stations use to calculate membership turnover. It gets thrown out the win dow with us.” Chapel Hill’s WUNC, which receives 17 percent of its $1.4 milhon annual budget from CPB, also stressed potential government cuts to its listeners. “It seems pretty clear that the amount [from CPB] will he reduced,” says Shirley Robinson, director of development for the 19-year-old sta tion that features classical music and NPR programs. “We’re telling them their financial help is more impor tant than ever.” In Roanoke Rapids, after less than eight months on the air, WZRU is new to fundraising. Co-station manager George Campbell says they’re just trying to get the word out to listeners that the station exists. “Our goal is to attract 1000 members this spring. We’ve got 270 so far,” Campbell says. Overall, North Carolina pnblic radio and TV stations are more effective than their coun- t e r p a r t s throughont the U.S. for on-air fundraising, per- snading on average 10 percent of their listeners and viewers to con tribute each year. Nationally, the average is nine percent. Bnt reaching the elusive 90 per cent could prove crucial in coming years. “Our job is to convince those peo ple [who don’t contribute] that they should be contributors,” says Patterson of WUNC-TV. “Look at the gap [between members and total viewers]! Look how many more could be contributing. Those are the people we want to reach. I’d like to sit down in their living room and say, ‘You watch these programs. How about donating?’ ” Campbell Have a story idea? Call the Philanthropy Journal, (919) 829-8921. hlfI ; SELF-HELP The Self-Help Credit Union lends to disad vantaged citizens, small businesses, and non profits in ail of North Carolina's communities. Make your federally insured, market rate deposit today. Cali Art Hollander at 1-800-476-7428 to ask about: •Money Market Accounts. •CD's. •IRA's. •Home Loans. •Commercial Loans. Stop by our booth at Philanthropy '95! Asheville • Charlotte • Durham Greensboro • Greenville Strategic MORGAN ASSOCIATES Program Development & Communications Helping Clients Invest Resources Efficiently ■ Corporate Community Affairs ■ Public/Private Partnerships ■ Strategic Planning ■ Key Audience Communications ■ Meeting/Conference Facilitation 8612 Seagate Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27615 Tel 919.518.2221 ■ Fax 919.518.2492 ■ Internet: JefFersonM@aol.com Cost Management Associates, Inc. Computer Systems/Services/Support YOUR NON-PROFIT SOLUTION if you need ♦ Client Tracking & Reporting Systems ♦ Fund Accounting ♦ Fund Raising Systems Since 1986 serving clients throughout the Carolinas 635-H Chapel Hill Road Burlington, NC 27215 1-800-747-0906
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 1, 1995, edition 1
9
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75